1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, etc. or a multi-functional image forming apparatus, and more particularly relates to a cooling device that leads air into the main body of an image forming apparatus to prevent an excessive rise in the temperature in the main body of the image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
Due to the recent increasing demand for downsizing and speeding up an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, or other similar image forming apparatus, the temperature in the main body of an image forming apparatus tends to rise. In addition, because of the high speed of the image forming apparatus, the melting point of the toner is set at a lower temperature to enable a toner image to be more quickly fixed onto a transfer material. Therefore, it is now more important to prevent excessive temperatures in the main body of an image forming apparatus in order to avoid changing the properties of the tonerxe2x80x94e.g., agglomerating or solidifying the toner particles.
A conventional image forming apparatus is constructed so that air is taken in a main body of the image forming apparatus from an air intake vent provided on one side surface of the main body of the image forming apparatus, and is discharged from an air exhaust vent provided on an opposite side surface of the main body of the image forming apparatus. When an image forming apparatus of this type is placed at a position adjacent to a wall in a room, so that the air intake vent is directed toward the wall, the air exhaust vent is directed to the user side, resulting in the increase in the noise level sensed by the user. In addition, when a fan is provided at the air exhaust vent, there may be an increase in the noise level coming from the main body of the image forming apparatus, thereby additionally annoying the user.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an image forming apparatus which includes a cooling device that can efficiently cool the inside of the main body of the image forming apparatus, while suppressing the noise level sensed by users.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus comprising a drum-shaped image carrier configured to carry a latent image. The image carrier comprises a first end side and a second end side on opposite ends of the longitudinal axis of the image carrier. The image forming apparatus further comprises a toner storing device disposed adjacent to the image carrier to store toner used for developing the latent image on the image carrier, thereby forming a toner image, and a fixing device configured to fix the toner image on a transfer material by heating. The fixing device is disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the image carrier. The image forming apparatus further comprises a cooling device configured to cool the inside of the main body of the image forming apparatus. The cooling device comprises an airflow path in which air enters a side of the main body of the image forming apparatus, enters the image carrier through the first end side of the image carrier, flows through the image carrier, and is discharged from the second end side of the image carrier. The airflow path then makes a U-turn on the second end side of the image carrier, and flows through a space between the toner storing device and the fixing device, and returns to a position on the first end side of the image carrier in the main body of the image forming apparatus.